


Intro to Culinary Arts

by dearzoemurphy



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Cooking, Fluff, Gen, Mid-Canon, Mid-season 3, idk how else to tag this but I feel like I should have more tags, just The Trio making soup for a dinner party, roommate hijinks, sharing traditional recipes w/ friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:33:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23727628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearzoemurphy/pseuds/dearzoemurphy
Summary: Annie is making her grandmother’s matzo ball soup for a dinner party with her friends and enlists the help of her roommates, Troy and Abed.Set sometime during season 3 after they move in together, but the timeframe is not all that important.
Relationships: Annie Edison & Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes & Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes & Annie Edison, Troy Barnes & Annie Edison & Abed Nadir
Comments: 6
Kudos: 59





	Intro to Culinary Arts

**Author's Note:**

> big shoutout to Tess/lichfucker for proofreading this and checking for inaccuracies!! I couldn’t have written this without their help and inspiration from other members of the Community rarepairs Discord! this was very fun to write in the midst of all of the j/b angsty feelings I’ve been having, so I hope you all enjoy

“Okay, so you made the what now yesterday?” Troy asked, confused. Him and Abed were being enlisted by Annie to help make soup for a dinner party being hosted at their apartment. It had been awhile since their slightly unorthodox housewarming, and the trio wanted to prove that they were capable of hosting a grown-up function. 

The brunette rolled her eyes and huffed. “The chicken stock! Basically the broth. I need your help making the matzo balls while the soup cooks,” she explained. 

“Can we act like we’re on a cooking show and you’re Rachel Ray?” Abed inquired earnestly. 

Annie was feeling extremely frazzled with the amount of work she had been doing to get ready for the party, so she didn’t especially feel like going along with her roommates’ hijinks. However, she didn’t feel like upsetting them either, so she relented. Besides, she was genuinely excited to share her grandmother’s traditional dish with her friends, and wanted them involved in the process. “Fine. If I’m Rachel Ray, that means you’ll do everything I ask you to, right?” 

“Of course. We can’t disappoint the viewers back at home,” Abed said pragmatically. He and Troy both turned to smile at fake cameras in their living room. Annie couldn’t help but crack a smile as well. 

“Okay. Welcome back to Cooking with Annie! Today, we’re going to be making my grandmother’s traditional matzo ball soup! I’ve prepared the stock and matzo mixture ahead of time, but I’m enlisting the help of two special guests to bring everything together! Gentlemen, would you like to introduce yourselves?” she started in an over-the-top hostess voice. 

“Hi there, I’m Troy ‘T-Bone’ Barnes, co-host of ‘Troy and Abed in the Morning’. I love long walks in the park and coming home to cook with my roommates after a long day at the 9-5,” Troy introduced himself to the fake studio audience. 

“And I’m Abed Nadir, the other co-host of ‘Troy and Abed in the Morning’. I have a mysterious past that involves a secret recipe book that my great-grandfather hid in his secret tomb. I love the simple things in life, like bubble baths and buttered noodles,” the other man added. 

Annie grinned in the direction of the living room. “Okay! So now, I will put the stock, vegetables, and chicken in a pot to bring to a boil. In the meantime, we will take the matzo and form it into balls. This is where you two will help!” she explained. With extra flourish, she put the components laid out on her counter all together. 

“How do we prepare for this step, Chef Annie?” Troy asked, maintaining his over the top fake grin. 

“First, wash your hands! It's the most important step in every recipe,” his roommate said with her hands on her hips. She observed Abed and Troy turn around to scrub their hands in the kitchen sink. 

“Okay, next, grab the spoons I have set out and portion out the mixture onto the tray I have set out,” Annie added once she was satisfied with their culinary safety. 

“This is such a rewarding process. I feel most at home when I'm in the kitchen,” Abed said to the audience. 

Him and Troy had set to work spooning appropriate amounts of the paste onto the tray while Annie tended to the soup pot. There was a sort of comfortable domesticity to the whole thing that the group hadn't experienced in a while. 

“Chef Annie, what do we do once we've got it portioned out?” Troy called, turning away from the audience for a moment. 

“Oh! Okay, so for the next step, you need to wet your hands and then shape each pile to make it into more of a ball. They don't have to be perfect, it's just the thought that counts,” she explained. Her roommates nodded and went back to the sink. 

“Is this the recipe here by the stove, Chef Annie?” Abed asked, noticing an old crinkled and faded piece of paper sitting to the left of the sink. 

“Yes! Grandma Edison lovingly wrote it down many, many years ago,” Annie said. She put the lid on the soup pot and leaned against the counter, observing Troy starting to shape the dough. 

“Folks at home, you can go to  [ www.cookingwithannie.com/recipes/matzo-ball-soup ](http://www.cookingwithannie.com/matza-ball-soup) to get Grammy Edison’s classic recipe and make it for yourself!” he told the audience enthusiastically, causing Annie to crack up. 

Abed joined Troy, and Annie continued to watch them work.  _ “This is nice. I haven't made this soup in forever, and now it feels like old times. When I was still allowed in my family’s house. When we still-”  _ she started to think, a small sob escaping her body. 

Troy and Abed turned around, their over-the-top grins falling when they saw the state of their friend. 

“Annie? Is everything okay?” Troy asked. 

“Yeah, it's just…I haven't cooked with anyone like this in a long time. Not since I left home. I miss it,” she said quietly, doing her best to stave off tears. 

Her roommates quickly exchanged a look before stepping closer and pulling Annie into a tight embrace. She buried her head between their shoulders and let herself cry. Troy and Abed rubbed her back, squeezing her even tighter. 

“I love you guys. I'm so glad that you’re my new family,” Annie said. 

“We love you too,” the pair said in tandem. 

Annie giggled as they separated. “Thanks for doing this with me. I'm gonna go compose myself, finish rolling the matzo balls?” 

Troy nodded. “Of course. We got it,” he assured, patting her on the shoulder. Abed gave a comforting smile, making Annie feel confident about leaving them alone. 

She made her way to the bathroom and closed the door gently. In the dim light, she looked at herself in the mirror. Her face was visibly red even in the low light, glistening tear tracks running down her cheeks. She turned on the faucet and let it run for a moment before splashing some of the cool water on her face. 

“I'm Annie Edison. I don't let my past define me. I have some pretty amazing friends. This dinner party is going to be spectacular,” the brunette told herself in the mirror, reassuring and calming herself. With that, she took a deep breath and headed out of the bathroom, back to the kitchen. 

On her way there, she heard a small splat followed by Troy and Abed whispering to each other. 

“I don't think we were supposed to do it like that.”

“Then what were we supposed to do?” 

“I have no idea.”

Annie slowly crept into the kitchen and was horrified to see Abed holding an uncooked matzo ball on a spoon, preparing to flick it across the kitchen and into the pot of soup. “Guys…what are you doing?!” she exclaimed. 

“We decided to get a head start on the next step, and the recipe said that we had to launch the matzo balls into the pot, so that's what we were doing,” Troy explained. Abed slowly lowered the spoon and put the ball back onto the tray. 

“What?! No! You're supposed to lower them into the pot with a ladle or something!” the brunette screeched, running over to inspect the damage. Thankfully, the pair had only tried to throw one or two in the pot, leaving a minimal mess. 

“In our defense, your grandma’s handwriting really made it look like it said ‘launch’,” Abed chimed in. 

“There's no way,” Annie said, wiping up some of the mixture that ended up on the cabinet above the stove. 

“See for yourself,” Troy said, holding the recipe up to her face. 

Annie squinted to study it closely and landed on the controversial step. “Hm. Oh. I guess it does look like it says to launch them,” she said with a laugh. 

“I think our cooking show somehow became a classic sitcom,” Abed observed. 

Annie smiled and shook her head as Troy and Abed produced a laugh that was worthy of being on a sitcom laugh track. 

“Fair enough. Let's finish this out right?” she asked, hanging up the goal she’d used to clean the cabinet. 

Troy and Abed nodded. “For sure.”

She oversaw the appropriate relocation of the matzo into the soup pot before double checking the table settings she’d prepared hours earlier. The boys got out bowls to serve the soup in. It wasn't long before their guests started to trickle in; first Shirley, then Pierce, and finally Jeff and Britta.

“You got Troy and Abed to cook and they didn't burn the place down?” Jeff asked incredulously from where the group was gathered on the other side of the kitchenette. 

“They're not  _ that  _ stupid! You don't give them enough credit,” Annie protested. She went along and ladled soup into each of the bowls.

“To be fair, we did try to fling balls of dough into the pot earlier, so it's not outside the realm of possibility,” Troy chimed in. 

Jeff looked as if he wanted to add something, but Britta stopped him by squeezing his arm and giving him a stern look. He rolled his eyes and joined the rest of the group in assuming their seats at the round dinner table. Annie, Troy, and Abed came over carrying the soup bowls, passing them out to each of their guests. 

“Ooo! You're all grown up now! I'm so proud of each of you,” Shirley squealed. 

Annie smiled. “This is one of my grandma’s traditional Jewish recipes, so I hope I did her proud,” she said as she took the seat between Jeff and Shirley. 

The older woman suddenly looked more hesitant to touch the bowl. 

“I'm sure you did, Annie. I'm sure she was glad that you passed it along to two of your good friends, too,” Britta offered. 

She smiled at the blonde before directing her gaze across the table to her roommates. They caught her eye and smiled back. The chatter of her chosen family lulled Annie into a state of contentment as she dug into the labor of love that was their soup. 

_ “I must be a pretty lucky girl,”  _ she thought. 

**Author's Note:**

> as always, please leave any thoughts/comments/etc down below! I’m working on a long J/B fic currently, but I am still taking suggestions on pairings, prompts, and more for when I need a break from that. I hope you all are doing well and look forward to hearing from you!


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